Stationery
by TFRiD Queen
Summary: AdaSio fluff; stand-alone drabble. Adam and Sio being cute and fluffy. It's chilly. And Sio's writing a letter. And somehow they end up talking even though Sio's still trying to finish that letter anyway. Lots of WAFF (warning, may cause diabeetus).


**A/N: Fluffy AdaSio shenanigans b/c it's been a while since I wrote a purely fluffy, lighthearted thing :3**

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 _Dear Asao-san, hope you're doing all right! Since Saint-Germain still won't let me use my cellphone, I guess it'll have to be old-fashioned letters for now—_

" _Yaaaaawwwwnnnn_...man, why am I so sleepy..." Sio rubbed her eyes as another huge yawn erupted from her mouth, much to the chagrin of the e-gene holder whose legs she was currently lounging all over.

"Oy, squirt...I'm not a writing desk, much less a bed..." Adam muttered in slight irritation as the girl in his lap stretched and sighed, reminding him much more of a feline than a human. "Why don't you go sit at my desk-that's what it's there for?" So much for spending a quiet afternoon reading in silence—and it was one of his favorite books, to boot.

"Hmmm...yeah, but I'm lazy," she pouted, before grinning up at the man who was currently eyeing her with a slight grimace. "Besides, it's cold; don't you appreciate me warming your lap for you?"

"...Not if it involves my legs falling asleep," he shot back, although from the look and feel of things, the sniper was not going to change her mind anytime soon. "If you're cold, then why don't you just put on your jacket? Or get a throw; I've plenty of them on the bed," he nodded towards the mountain of fluffy blankets sitting haphazardly on the edge of the mattress. "You're heavier than you look..."

"H-Huh? Excuse me, are you saying I'm _fat?!_ " She screeched in indignation, before yelping as Adam patted her rump in a teasing manner. "Some boyfriend you are..."

"First off, no, you are anything but overweight—personally I think you need some more meat on those bones—and second, I never claimed to be an exceptional boyfriend in the first place," Adam grinned, tapping his fingers on the smooth warmth of her cute little bum. "Though I must say, your behind seems to have gotten a tad...rounder since you first joined? Perhaps you should lay off all those snacks for a while...I noticed your Asao friend sent you another package recently."

Sio's cheeks burned with embarrassment and anger. " **Wh-WHAT?!** How dare you stare at my butt—"

"—Oy watch the goods—!" Adam winced as the girl proceeded to throw a temper tantrum, hastily maneuvering her away from some very... _delicate_ parts that were sure to cause him much suffering should they get roughed up.

"—what goods—"

"—uh, hello? You're sitting _between_ my legs—"

"Huh?" She stopped all of a sudden and just blinked at him in pure confusion with those enormous maroon eyes.

"Just...nevermind. Forget about it, just...it's nothing." Adam hastily steered the conversation away to something safer, his cheeks now burning a bright red as well. "Is that...a letter to Asao you're writing?"

Sio looked down at the piece of stationery that had fallen to the floor during their little scuffle, the words still stuck on the beginning paragraph of asking Asao-san just how everybody was. "Yeah, since DOGOO's so strict about 'no outside contact' and all that, I have to resort to doing it the old-fashioned way...I mean, can you believe it, how am I supposed to survive without _email?_ In this day and age?!" She wailed, Adam resisting the urge to grin at her little outburst. "Don't you miss the internet and stuff?"

Adam face was thoughtful as Sio awaited his response, now lying on her back and facing upwards in his lap. "Hmm...well, it's certainly convenient, and I do miss being able to contact my mum whenever I want. But honestly, aside from her, there's really not much else I use it for...I don't really do social media, and most email I get these days are just spam or from people trying to get favors out of 'Jack the Ripper'..." His eyes turned downward into a grimace, remembering the unwanted celebrity status that turned into hordes of strangers trying to show up at the airport when he'd simply gone home for a short visit. "No, can't say I miss it all that much. You'll get used to it, squirt. Besides, then you can do other things instead, like reading a book."

Sio made a face as she studied the letter she'd written so far—man, had her penmanship really gone downhill so much? "I guess you have a point; I mean, now I have time to re-read all my issues of _Tanks Monthly_ , but it's just...don't you ever get lonely?"

He raised an eyebrow at her question. "Lonely? I've always been kind of a lone wolf to begin with..."

"I, I know that...but, I mean...don't you have, any...friends?" She asked quietly, looking a little guilty. "B-Besides me and other people at DOGOO, I mean."

He stared at her for a little longer, with quiet eyes and a rather somber expression. Loneliness...and friendship? It wasn't something that he really had time to think about, ever since joining DOGOO and being swept up in this war. But now that he really thought about it, a true best friend...

"...Not really. Well, I guess to be completely honest, there was a classmate of mine whom I suppose I'd consider to be pretty a good mate...but I haven't had much contact with him after coming here. And frankly, I can't say I...really miss him that much. Oh sure, we talk once in a great while, and certainly he always invites me to the local pub for a pint or two when I get the chance to visit home, but other than that..." Adam shook his head slowly. "Nah, can't say I have much friends to begin with. Always preferred to do things by myself, and for some reason, all the other kids just kept their distance from me." He smirked ruefully, as if remembering some long-lost detail from his childhood. "Who knows; maybe I was already unconsciously exhibiting signs of 'Jack the Ripper' even back then."

"Oh...I, I see..." So they were more alike than she'd thought, Sio realized. Both of them were loners who never found it easy to make friends, though from the sounds of it, Adam seemed to be less bothered by it than her. "I...guess we're both lone wolves, then."

"But isn't Asao your best friend?"

"Yeah, she is, but...truthfully, we didn't meet until high school...a-and honestly, that trip to Taiwan where you saved us?" He nodded. "That was probably our first...real encounter. W-Well, discounting the very first time we met as first years...but that was more just a 'hello, nice to meet you' kinda deal..."

The girl who was standing on the rooftop at the same time an F-14 happened to be flying overhead...how was Sio supposed to know that dark-haired beauty she'd unwittingly saved that day would become someone so important and close to her, in just the span of a day? Even though they didn't earnestly interact until that fateful day, for some reason she'd always kept the popular girl in the back of her mind.

"Wait, are you saying that not only is Asao your best friend, but she's your _only_ friend?" Adam stared at her a bit in disbelief. "And from what you just said, you two only really became friends because you saved her from the EIOs?"

"U-Uh, I guess?" Sio laughed nervously. "I know it sound a little strange...b-but you just said you didn't have any friends yourself, so why are you making it seem like I'm the weird one?" She huffed, cheeks puffing slightly as she pouted. "Being different in Japan isn't really the same as Western countries; a military otaku like me is basically doomed to the bottom of the social ladder; though I guess I just got used to it." She recalled all her lunch hours spent by herself, grinning as she turned the pages of a magazine with her chopsticks or secretly reading a handbook on planes when they were supposed to be studying literature. "Being alone has its perks sometimes. And I was mostly content."

There was a sigh, and next thing Sio knew, Adam had put down his book and picked her up, this time setting her so she was sitting in his lap and leaning against his chest, his heartbeat a steady rhythm in her ear. "I won't disagree with that...but, now that I've met you...I'm not so sure I'd want to go back to that. Being alone...to me, that means being without you," he whispered against her strands, and Sio felt herself blushing to the very roots of her hair, "that's what loneliness means to me."

"A-Adam..." For some reason his words made her a bit melancholy; even though they were here right now, together, it reminded her of the rare moments of true loneliness she'd experienced; wondering late into the night if she would ever grow out of her social awkwardness and be able to talk to others at last. "I...I feel the same, too; I'm glad we met; I'm glad we got to be like... _t-this_ ," she blushed, but Adam merely chuckled and nuzzled her hair. "Even if I wasn't unhappy before...I know, I'm much happier now..."

"Is that so? That makes me very happy, love," Adam kissed her just once on the cheek, Sio squeaking incoherently before mustering up the courage to return it, this time on his lips. "Oh, so you do have a wild side after all...I like that..."

"A-Adam! You make it sound so...dirty," she flushed a brilliant red, before vigorously resuming her letter. "A-And don't look over my shoulder! This letter is private—can't a girl get some privacy?"

"Oy, you were the one who insisted on writing it here, when I have a perfectly nice table for you to use," he retorted, but opened his novel again. "Relax, I'm not interested in girl talk-or whatever you two gossip about...just don't write anything bad about me."

Sio stuck out her tongue in a playful manner, before finally picking her pen up again. There was so much to say—the training, the new battles—oh, better not make it too gory—she wasn't sure how much Asao-san could stomach. _'_ _Might make her worry too much; I'll just give her the basics, no need to include all the details.'_ And of course her blossoming relationship with a certain Ripper...just thinking about it, despite the fact that she was very cozily situated in his lap, still made the sniper's heart race and cheeks grow warm. _'_ _I still can't believe I have a boyfriend now...and thanks to those EIOs, no less.'_

The air was warming up, Adam having turned up the heat some time after her complaint of it being constantly cold. It made her feel rather drowsy...or rather, even more than she already was. Folding the letter in half, she set it down onto the coffee table, before yawning again and stretching out all the kinks in her back. "Man, I'm tired... I wanna take a nap..."

"Done already?" She nodded sleepily, his body heat made her quite comfortable in his embrace. "Uh, you're not seriously sleeping here, are you...?"

"Mmmm... _nemui_..." She muttered, before leaning her head against the crook of his neck, one of his arms coming around to situate itself snugly against her waist. "What're you reading?"

"And here I thought you were against reading over shoulders," he joked, but didn't bother trying to hide the text. "If you must know, it's George Orwell's _Animal Farm_. Very politically charged...but a good story."

Her fuzzy brain turned the name over in her mind. "Orwell...Orwell, isn't he that depressing British author who wrote that creepy book? 1985 or whatever it's called?"

"It's _1984_ ; and I wasn't aware Orwell was considered depressing," Adam sweatdropped at the girl's extremely casual descriptions of one of the most celebrated English authors of all time. "Pessimistic, maybe."

Sio shrugged sleepily against his shoulders, eyelids already drooping. "Close enough; hey, read to me, please? Read the book; I wanna understand it too."

"Read aloud? What is this, storytime or something..."

"Pleeaase? I'm too slow reading it in English...but listening is okay. Besides, you have a really nice voice...I like hearing it..."

He sighed, giving into her requests once again. "All right; but only because you asked so nicely." Secretly though, Adam was quite flattered that she considered his voice to be pleasant on the ears. "Then listen carefully; I don't want to repeat myself."

"Mmm hmm..."

Adam cleared his throat, before starting from the chapter he left off.

 _"It was a bitter winter. The stormy weather was followed by sleet and snow, and then by a hard frost which did not break till well into February..."_

A few pages later he heard a light snore, and looked down to see the tilted head of a petite sniper, now completely asleep as she used his chest as a pillow. "So much for 'wanting to understand', 'ey squirt?" Shaking his head, but smiling all the while, he marked the page, before sinking deeper into the couch himself. It was a quiet afternoon; there was still a few hours before dinner, and sometimes simply spending time with the one you loved was more than enough.


End file.
